grewnd33 Posted October 23, 2009 Share Posted October 23, 2009 This post is speculation and should be regarded as such. I also heard that if you purchased Windows 7 Pro Upgrade during pre-order that MS shipped Windows 7 Ultimate plus Office 2010 as a bonus. See how speculation works? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
bkimbler Posted October 23, 2009 Share Posted October 23, 2009 I was able to do this. I bought the family 3 pack upgrade. I booted from the DVD, formatted my drive (which was running Win 7 release candidate) and did a full install. Never asked for any information regarding the previous version of Windows. Put in my key and Windows validated. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
jerzdawg Posted October 23, 2009 Share Posted October 23, 2009 I was able to do this.I bought the family 3 pack upgrade. I booted from the DVD, formatted my drive (which was running Win 7 release candidate) and did a full install. Never asked for any information regarding the previous version of Windows. Put in my key and Windows validated. yup... exact same process I did.. worked fine. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Qba73 Posted October 23, 2009 Author Share Posted October 23, 2009 Hey Qba73...Quick Question:Did you format the hard disk yourself (outside the Windows 7 Setup) or did you let Windows 7 setup detect the previous Windows and format the hard disk? I think this may have an impact on whether it considers it an upgrade or not. I definitely did not have an activated copy of Windows running before installing Win 7. While, my Win Vista Home Premium was activated, I installed Win 7 Ultimate by mistake first. Then, I edited the ISO and installed Win 7 Home Premium. What I don't remember is if I let Windows 7 Setup format the hard disk or whether I did it myself. I think I let Win 7 Setup format it. In any case, clearly an activated copy is not a pre requirement,. The drive i installed win7 on was brank new, nothing on it...only thing is i had my old primary drive as a secondary drive when i did the install. i was wondering if win7 setup saw that secondary drive with vista install on it.. although i doubt it..it may just be that the loophole from vista is still there, i will confirm when i do the install on my dell lap..just waiting for the home premium dvd to arrive...but on my main pc i installed no problem. I booted from disc, ran setup and installed key @ end and activated in windows...never did it meantion anything about a previous windows installation or that it was checking for one. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
carmatic Posted October 23, 2009 Share Posted October 23, 2009 guys, think about it... for those people who upgraded from xp or vista fair and square.... do you think that microsoft would really leave them screwed if they ever had to reinstall the OS for whatever reason, and they no longer have the disc for their previous version of windows (which they will not be using again anyway)? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Minifig Posted October 23, 2009 Share Posted October 23, 2009 Threads merged. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Myrdhinn Posted October 23, 2009 Share Posted October 23, 2009 Worked well for me. I've been running HP for past few months using rearm. Just got my upgrade disk today, and activated using the product key with no problems. YAY for not having to try upgrading or having to reload Vista. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
PeepingThePie Posted October 23, 2009 Share Posted October 23, 2009 (edited) All I would like to know is this: can the Windows 7 Upgrade Install CD be used to install and activate Windows 7 on a computer with a totally blank, bare hard drive? (Sorry if this sounds hard headed, but a lot of people posting in this thread seem to have had some previous version of Windows (or even Windows 7 RC) present on a primary or secondary hard drive when they started their clean install from the upgrade install CD.) Edited October 23, 2009 by PeepingThePie Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
gregrocker Posted October 23, 2009 Share Posted October 23, 2009 (edited) All I would like to know is this: can the Windows 7 Upgrade Install CD be used to install and activate Windows 7 on a computer with a totally blank, bare hard drive?(Sorry if this sounds hard headed, but a lot of people posting in this thread seem to have had some previous version of Windows (or even Windows 7 RC) present on a primary or secondary hard drive when they started their clean install from the upgrade install CD.) Paul Thurrot just posted your answer: http://community.winsupersite.com/blogs/pa...the-answer.aspx Edited October 23, 2009 by gregrocker Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
soonerproud Posted October 23, 2009 Share Posted October 23, 2009 Actually, thats exactly how it works... That was how the upgrade process to XP worked. Since Vista, Microsoft has required that something be installed on the drive to use the upgrade media as a clean install and still successfully activate. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
carmatic Posted October 24, 2009 Share Posted October 24, 2009 That was how the upgrade process to XP worked. Since Vista, Microsoft has required that something be installed on the drive to use the upgrade media as a clean install and still successfully activate. and that something can be the unactivated copy of the OS , installed from the upgrade media itself Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Qba73 Posted October 29, 2009 Author Share Posted October 29, 2009 Qba73,How about you unplug the second drive and try it all again. Just to confirm. We want proper confirmation, not hearsay or broken telephone. Talking about Vista is irrelevant. Ok got my Dell win 7 home premium 64bit upgrade dvd today, installed new 500gb drive blank, installed from dell disk, boot into dvd, ran clean install...asked for win 7 key, activated, no problem, confirmed on my end, no prior vista activation sucessfull, no need to install twice (vista loophole) or without key. entered key in setup, connected to network in setup, got into windows and activated. so now that makes 2 computers that i can confirm it worked on (other was my inital post on my desktop with clean drive see first page) Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
svnO.o Posted October 29, 2009 Share Posted October 29, 2009 Ok got my Dell win 7 home premium 64bit upgrade dvd today, installed new 500gb drive blank, installed from dell disk, boot into dvd, ran clean install...asked for win 7 key, activated, no problem, confirmed on my end, no prior vistaactivation sucessfull, no need to install twice (vista loophole) or without key. entered key in setup, connected to network in setup, got into windows and activated. so now that makes 2 computers that i can confirm it worked on (other was my inital post on my desktop with clean drive see first page) Looks like Microsoft wants as many people to jump on Windows 7 as possible. TechNet, MSDN/AA, colleges/universities are selling copies to students, launch parties with free copies of Windows 7, and now upgrade copies of Win7 that work like retail. :wacko: Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
mrp04 Posted October 30, 2009 Share Posted October 30, 2009 Ok got my Dell win 7 home premium 64bit upgrade dvd today, installed new 500gb drive blank, installed from dell disk, boot into dvd, ran clean install...asked for win 7 key, activated, no problem, confirmed on my end, no prior vistaactivation sucessfull, no need to install twice (vista loophole) or without key. entered key in setup, connected to network in setup, got into windows and activated. so now that makes 2 computers that i can confirm it worked on (other was my inital post on my desktop with clean drive see first page) The branded versions don't count, its possible that they have full install keys. What we need is someone who buys a retail upgrade key, and installs without any tricks onto a computer with no OSs installed on any drives. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
donbt09 Posted October 30, 2009 Share Posted October 30, 2009 It looks like MS confirmed is legal http://www.computerworld.com/s/article/914..._trick_is_legal Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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